The present invention is directed to a device for conveying articles along a path from an input end to an output end, which path has an arrangement for stopping the flow of the articles to cause an accumulation thereof and the device maintains the orientation of each of the articles as it moves along the path.
In my copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 205,379, which was filed on June 10, 1988, and which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,080 on Oct. 17, 1989, I disclose a conveyor device which receives parts in a desired orientation and conveys the parts in a line to a discharge position where an element of an assembly device picks up a part to transport it to a point for further assembly. In the arrangement of the copending application, the parts were guided between rails or guide surfaces and edges of the parts were supported on moving belts until a stop arrangement prevented their further movements so that they would slide on the surface of the moving belts until released for being removed from the conveyor device. Since the belts form a portion of a supporting surface for the part as it is being moved along a path, the belt always needed to be positioned below a portion of the part. In addition, problems would occur if the path deviated by a substantial amount from a horizontal position because the belts depended on gravitational forces to maintain a frictional force between the part and the surfaces of the belt. Thus, because of the nature of the conveying device, problems occurred when combining this device with other devices or machines because of the requirement that the belts always be positioned below the part being conveyed.